A US military vet said joining the fight against ISIS was as easy as booking a flight to Miami.
The former soldier bought a plane ticket online and applied via Facebook to join a Kurdish group fighting ISIS in Syria — where he used a Bible as body armor.
“I just went online and bought a ticket. It was that easy,” said the freelance warrior, who identified himself as “John” in an interview with Fox News.
John, who has multiple tours in Iraq under his belt, said he contacted the Kurdish People’s Protection Unit, known as YPG, on Facebook.
“There was a Facebook page for it — shot them a message, expressed my interest, they got back to me, told me to send them, essentially, a resume for their vetting purposes,” he said.
“What I believe is that they are European go-betweens, they are not in Kurdistan, they operate receiving information of interested Westerners, and then they either relay it or make a decision themselves of whether or not this person is suitable to work with the YPG,” he told Fox. “They sent (a) message saying I was approved and someone would be waiting on me.”
His comrades-in-arms met him at the Iraqi airport and took him to the front lines. He met several other foreigners, including other Americans, a Canadian and a Briton.
“I got in a car and there was a guy from Scotland there. So that was kind of refreshing, to see that I’m not the only one,” he said. “And it helped affirm to me, hey, I actually am with the good guys.”
Although the US military supports the Kurds in their fight, the State Department frowns on direct involvement by US citizens.
“It’s certainly something we’ve spoken out against and are opposed to,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki told Fox about Americans fighting with a foreign military.
The Supreme Court found it’s not against the law for US citizens to go abroad and join a foreign army if they were recruited inside the country — but it may be a violation. The 200-year-old applicable law obviously predates social media.
About 1,000 foreigners stream into Syria every month to fight, Fox reported, including a growing number of Americans.
“It’s extremely dangerous in that they’re taking anyone with no military experience, no age requirements, no physical restrictions,” said John, who said he stuffed his vest with a Bible to make up for the lack of body armor. “They are just taking people there, giving them a gun saying, ‘Hey, good luck, buddy.’”
John had second thoughts, though, after the jihadists put a bounty on his head, so he packed up his Bible and made his way to the US Consulate in Iraq and returned home.
“The amount of trouble I could be in is, you know, still up in the air. It’s a legal gray area, what I did,” he said.
